GelCool Systems                      

GelCool has systems in use all over Iraq in humvees, larger personnel carriers, fixed base use (guard stations), on foot patrols, and in helicopters. 

Donate A System:
To learn more about donating a system to our troops in Iraq, please click here.  This will open a PDF file.

Customized Systems for Military Use

GelCool Systems has developed specialized cooling gel packs for military use.  Our cooling gel packs allow military personnel to work in greater comfort with significantly greater endurance and mental sharpness in high temperature situations.  In addition, these gel packs may be warmed for use inside helmets in cold environments.  Our lab testing shows significant warming (up to 30 minutes) inside the ACH while maintaining the all-important fit and alignment of the helmet.

Military personnel rely on their helmets for life-saving protection, but the helmets interfere with the body's efforts to release 60% of its heat through the head.  GelCool Systems will change the way military personnel work in the heat, especially when dismounted, without the size, weight, and power penalties associated with large active ventilation or powered cooling systems.  GelCool's quick-change gel packs allow military personnel to maintain lower cranial blood temperature, which keeps them more alert and responsive, helps reduce the chance of heat stroke, and improves operational performance.  Heat stroke, the serious medical condition resulting from acute heat stress, can disable military personnel at a time when the clear use of their mental faculties is most critical.  GelCool gel packs pull heat away from the head at a safe 20 watts, which will not cause confusion in the body's thermoregulatory systems.  And most importantly, as with all other GelCool products, proper helmet fit is maintained: this is crucial to a soldier's safety.  Maximum ballistic protection is provided when the helmet fits as designed, low on the head, covering as much of the temple, side and rear of the head as possible.  Only GelCool's specially designed gel packs allow the helmet to maintain this proper fit.  Furthermore, the gel packs are designed and manufactured to withstand extremely rugged, high impact environments, having passed laboratory testing of over 300G impacts.

Many MRAPs, M1151P1, M1151P2 and older M-998, and M-1025 Humvees have been equipped with a cooling vest system that the soldier can use while inside the vehicle (Air Warrior Microclimatic Cooling Garments or MCGs), but the moment he moves away from the vehicle he loses the active cooling function: GelCool gel packs can be inserted right before leaving the vehicle, and fresh (cold) packs can be carried in insulated carriers to the field.  Since the temperature inside an air conditioned Humvee in Iraq can easily exceed 95 degrees, every means of cooling the soldier is a valuable addition.  Humvee cooling and MRAP cooling are serious challenges in theatres such as Iraq.  The U.S. Army is currently using GelCool gel packs in Iraq on walking patrols, by medics, in vehicles, and on fixed guard posts.

We are already shipping both our full size (17 ounce) and our lightweight (7 ounce) gel packs to Iraq for use in military helmets.  The lightweight (7 ounce) gel packs are half the thickness of the full size packs and are also very effective in troop cooling.  No other soldier cooling system offers meaningful cooling in a 7 ounce package.


Heat Stress Alone Can Cause Rapid Loss of Mental Sharpness, Awareness, and Responsiveness

Since the lives of our military personnel depend upon their ability to remain sharp and respond quickly, any system which effectively keeps them cooler while not unduly hindering their movement or vision, is a major asset to them.  Perspiration alone will not remove heat from the body.  The perspiration must evaporate for the body to shed heat.  The military uniform is designed to prevent the transfer of moisture,  so it works against the body's need to evaporate sweat and retains much of the metabolic heat.  Military MOPP/BDU/BDOs cannot perform the dual role of protecting the soldier and allowing sufficient moisture transfer for cooling.  In this environment GelCool gel packs provide active cooling to the area of the cranium which has the greatest cooling effect on the brain (our most sensitive organ).  While proper hydration remains the single most important component of heat stress management, GelCool Systems cooling gel packs play a meaningful role in keeping the soldier's mental faculties at their peak performance level.  For much more information on how GelCool Gel Packs work, please visit our Technical Overview page.  Ground troops face the challenges of Humvee heat and Humvee cooling daily - these challenges directly affect their performance.


Designed for Ease of Use / Rapid Change Out : Micro-Climate Cooling

GelCool Systems gel packs do not impair movement or add significant weight to the helmet (7 oz for our lightweight packs or 17 ounces for our full size packs).  They require minimal maintenance.  All of our feedback from ground troops in Iraq shows that they are very comfortable using both the 7 and 17 ounce packs, though most soldiers prefer the 7 ounce pack.  GelCool gel packs can be quickly removed and replaced.  They are designed to seat properly in about 2 seconds and can be removed just as quickly. 

Other companies offer small cloth pads that are placed in cold water or ice then attached to the helmet suspension by Velcro straps.  These cloth pads can leak streams of water on the user's face, provide cooling for a very short period of time, and take several minutes to insert and remove.  Some of these cloth pads have as many as eight Velcro ties that must be wrapped around the helmet's suspension webbing to hold them in place.  Time matters in real world situations, so soldiers using our competition's Velcro-fastened cloth pad would likely leave the pad in the helmet all day long because they wouldn't have time to change it (it took our staffer over a minute to install while sitting in an air conditioned office, with no combat distractions).  Meanwhile, the cloth pad's effective cooling period is probably only about one minute (they claim it "cools" for hours, but it actually only stays wet for hours, and becomes a hot liquid on top of the head as soon as its cooling period ends - about 1 minute in 100 degree weather).  Quite simply, high heat environments require active cooling packs that can be changed easily and quickly.

Other large back pack cooling solutions being developed in the private sector promise integrated cooling for the head and torso, but have a very significant weight penalty (around 17 pounds) and cost several thousand dollars per soldier.  GelCool Systems add a maximum of 17 ounces to the soldier's uniform/gear and cost about one tenth the cost of these more complex, heavy back pack systems.


Enhanced Ballistic and Impact Protection

The use of GelCool Systems gel packs inside the ACH may also provide additional ballistic and impact protection to the soldier, though this lab testing has not been completed to date.  The improved ballistic and impact protection would be the result of placing GelCool System's near ballistic density gel (inside the gel pack: the gel pack's "horse shoe" shaped coolant reservoir) in a halo around the upper cranium.  The gel's density and shock absorption characteristics could aid in slowing or stopping a projectile that had penetrated the ACH, could provide impact force attenuation, and would provide cooling directly to the cranium in case of a head injury - this cooling has now been clearly proven to play a life-saving function in cases of head and spinal cord trauma.  Also, GelCool gel packs are not attached to the head and are quickly interchangable (to a fresh, cold pack), so first responders could quickly place a fresh cold pack on the head or even elsewhere on the body where a cold pack would help in first aid treatment - the use of a GelCool system requires that fresh cold gel packs be on the ready in a cooler nearby, either in a Humvee, personnel carrier, fixed ground site, or portable equipment carried by logistics support personnel.  This offers military units a manageable and dependable means to not only provide head cooling but also have cold packs ready for first aid.

Aircraft Ground Operations

Please visit our Aviation page to learn more about GelCool Systems ground personnel solution.

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